Democrats abandon Feingold on proposed NSA censure

[KevinTheOmnivore]

Originally Posted by ziggytrix

People vote for a plethora of reasons. Not everyone votes for the "best person for the job".

Um, yeah, but those reasons tend to add up to "I like Jim Bob. He has a good X policy, a solid stance on Y, and he loves his family. This makes him the best guy for the job in my opnion."

Other reasons could be to vote against the other candidate, but that's still a quality vote. I also never said people vote for who they think is the best, i said they vote for who the best is out of the choices offered. That is what i'm referring to when I say voters make very practical choices.

And, uh, it's elections and politics. You generalize.

I bet if you had access to the ballots, you could find a lot of straight D or straight R voters. I bet you could even find some that were straight independant, when the choice was available (damn the iconoclasts!).

You could, but the numbers have decreased since the 70's. To keep it short, a lot of working class, labor Democrat-types shifted parties in the late-70's early 80's. Those who didn't become "Reagan Democrats" often just became independents, feeling no draw to either of the parties. Same goes for a lot of young people at that time.

Some of this is attributable to party changes that were internal, but it also had to do with Nixon and Watergate. People pretty much got tired of politicans in the 70's, with good reason.

I seem to recall some news story not too long ago that mentioned a lady who voted based on whether she liked the way the name sounded!

Not everyone who votes takes it seriously. Just look for exit polls about whether people thought their vote mattered or was even going to get counted.

it's not all that uncommon that people vote on "gut instinct" sort of stuff. Which again, might strike YOU as irresponsible and ignorant, but remember you're the abnormal one who probably reads about politics online ann in print, what, 3-4 times a week? To the lady who votes for the nice name, YOU'RE the weirdo.

And let me clarify my position on responsible voting. When I say people make the most rational or viable selection, I didn't mean they do it enthusiastically. Like I said, I consider a non-voter a voter. Whether they're conscious of it or not, they have made a choice that effects the country. They have decided to leave the decisions of authority to other people, and their passive attitude is their silent consent to this.

There was a good book written about this, "political PArties" by Robert Michels. Lame title, but it's all about the tendency for groups/unions/parties/whatever to become dominated simply by those who care enough to participate, thus creating tiny little fiefdoms of interest. Modern unions are a great example.